Abounding Grace

Guest (Male): Helping each other along life's way. Today on Abounding Grace. We are excited and delighted to share the next half hour together with you. Welcome to Abounding Grace online at aboundinggraceradio.com. Pastor Ed Taylor is nearing the conclusion of a study in Galatians and we come back to chapter 6 today.

Last time we were together we were encouraged to help each other out, to bear one another's burdens. As we begin, Pastor Ed sends out a warning against spiritual pride, something that can definitely hold us back in this whole area of helping each other.

Pastor Ed Taylor: Open your Bibles to Galatians chapter 6. Consider verse 3 as we move on. "For if anyone thinks himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself." So right here, tucked in the middle of verses 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 is a warning. And again, you can write it down if you like to write in your Bibles or you're taking notes. It's a warning against spiritual pride because pride will hold you back from being useful in the Master's hands.

Spiritual pride in the context of this section of scripture can go a couple different ways. First of all, spiritual pride could be lived out in your life like, "I don't need to help anyone, the church can help them." But you're the church, so that's not an accurate way of looking at it. "I don't need to help them, I don't need to help them." No, you actually do need to help. And I know it gets overwhelming. We get to the place where we say, "I can't do everything." You're right. Nobody asks you to do everything. God just says do something. Don't do everything, just do something. What's in front of you? Taking care of the needs that are in front of you.

You come in and out of this building 52 times a year. If you come on midweek, let's say you have perfect attendance, A++, then you're here 104 times a year just for Bible study. Let's say you come 80% of the time, 80 times you're in here. 80 times you're asked to greet people. 80 times you're sitting next to someone or in a couple of chairs over. Somebody's sitting in front of you, somebody's sitting in back of you. God says to us today that we should know the people around us. And if their burdens are heavy, we should help them. God has given us a heart to care. That's this whole section. Caring. Caring enough to do something.

Some of you need to start getting here earlier. Now, I'm not talking about all of you that are late all the time. That's a lot of people. I'm not saying get on time, stop being late, that's just the way you are and it's the way it's going to be. But maybe you can be on time next time. That's fine. I'm talking about most of you that need to be here early just to greet people. Just to say hi to people. Just to walk around before service and just say, "Welcome to this church, I love this church, I'm glad you're here. How can I pray for you?" Just to get to know your body of Christ. Just to greet people.

The people that are new to our church, they usually get here early. You can see them. They get here early because they don't know what they're walking into. They don't know what kind of parking lot, they don't know where to put their kids, so they come early so they can scope out everything. And by the time they find everything, they come into the sanctuary early. You know they're new because they're reading the announcements. They're actually the only ones that read the announcements. They're just kind of wondering what this church is all about and what are they into.

Then you walk up to them and go, "Hey, welcome here, I see that you're new." And they go, "How do you know I'm new?" "Well, you're reading the announcements. Folks don't read the announcements around here." Or you've got a new believer. You're just being a loving person in your own church family. You have given a few more of your minutes. By getting here on time, you have your own kids to get settled or whatever it might be. You come to the building caring about others before you ever care about yourself. It changes you.

Some of you need to do that. And of course, the introverts are like, "Oh, I'll never do that. I'm an introvert." You've been hiding behind your personality for a long time. It's okay to be introverted, extroverted, whatever. If you're introverted, it's okay. God's not going to embarrass you. He's not going to make life harder for you. Here's what God will probably do: you're the introverted one and you go, "Okay, I'll do it," and you walk in and you meet somebody, and guess what? You meet another introverted person. This is how it's going to go: "Hi, my name is Ed and I came here." And the other person will go, "Hi, I didn't really want to be greeted, but I'm glad you're here." God connects you up.

But you've got to make yourself available and obey this. The Bible says it's a command: bear one another's burdens. How will you ever know someone's burdens unless you approach them, unless you think of them, unless you start talking to them? Even today in greeting. I love doing it. We train all the pastors to do this, all the school of ministry. So there are people always early greeting. As soon as I'm done praying, I'm going to meet everyone here that's new, everyone that I just want to catch up with. I can't say hey to everyone, but I'll say hey to as many people as I can. Sometimes I sit down, sometimes I'll pray, sometimes I'll hear their story.

I was walking around in both services and even last night, there was a lot of heavy pain in the room. That could just be that those are who I'm drawn to or who are drawn to me, and that's possible. It could just be for my prayer life to pray and to learn. I just know that's what it was today. I was greeting and I was joking around with some people in the back, happy and excited, reminding everybody that the Dodgers are back-to-back world champions. When I was in Brooklyn I thanked everyone for giving us the Dodgers because that's where they started. So we were just having some fun before service and greeting and catching up on life.

I was walking up a couple of rows and I was greeting with a big smile on my face because we were just having some fun before service. And there were tears in her eyes. I wasn't sure if it was allergies or not or what was going on. So I sat down with her and I asked her if she was okay, which led her to break down and cry. Rather than talk, because there really wasn't much to talk about, I just laid my hands on her and prayed for her. Now, of course, I'm the pastor, yes. But that was my sister in the Lord, a sister in church. I still don't even know what it was. She didn't share with me and I didn't ask her. But I did take her to the Lord.

Imagine if you multiply that by 100 people or 200 where there's more people asking each other "How can I pray for you?" than there are people to pray. What a testimony that is. Because then you start a new habit in your life and it doesn't just extend to the church. This is how you show up at work. You actually show up at work ready for the Lord to show someone, ready to step in. You know, the person that's been really hard to work with, "I'm getting a new job because of so-and-so." Well, guess what so-and-so is saying? "I'm going to get a new job because of you."

But what if you came in, and I know it's hard and working in the world's hard, work is not the curse, by the way, biblically. Work is not the curse. It just being hard is the curse. But work is given to us by God. He wants us to work. He wants us to produce. That's God's will for our lives. What if you went to work tomorrow morning with the heart of "God sent me here so I can help someone"? Would that not change your whole perspective? I think it would. That doesn't mean work won't be hard, it's still going to be hard, but it's going to be easier for you because you're walking in the spirit and you're not in the flesh.

And maybe instead of getting in the flesh in 15 minutes into your shift, you get into the flesh the last 15 minutes of your shift. Look what God has done in a whole day to use you for the kingdom. That's what He's talking about here. Don't be spiritually prideful thinking that you're somebody. "Well, I'm somebody, Ed." And the Bible says, "No, if you think you're somebody when you're nothing..." This isn't like a statement of self-esteem, trying to demean you or put you down. He's just telling us: remember where you came from, and that will keep you humble. Remember where you came from, and that will keep you humble.

If you're spiritually prideful, that's one more barrier that's there between you and someone that needs you, and perhaps even you need them. We read in the Psalm today in Psalm 36 that the prideful refuse to act wisely. They strive against wisdom. And that's exactly where they fall. It says in verse 3 here in Galatians that they're deceiving themselves. We deceive ourselves in pride because so often we're faced with situations and circumstances that are impossible. But instead of thinking of ourselves and our own inadequacy, we turn to the Lord and He's faithful.

Notice now verse 4 and 5. "But let each one, so not spiritual pride, instead let each one examine his own work, and then he'll have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. For each one shall bear his own load." Let each one examine. You can circle that word "examine" in verse 4 and you can write next to it "scrutinize." It's the kind of examination where you pay very, very close attention to all the details. He says, examine yourself. Pay attention to the details in your life.

When's the last time you were in front of a mirror? You went in front of the mirror and you asked the Lord to show you who you are. You asked the Lord. I think of some marriage issues that are in the room right now and I think it's always their fault, their fault, their fault. When's the last time you just looked in the mirror and go, "Lord, what about me? What about me, Lord? What do You want to do in my life? You obviously allowed this and it's very hard, but what about me?"

And you're looking at the world today and you've got "they're doing it wrong and they're doing it wrong and they're doing it wrong." Well, when's the last time you just stand in front of the mirror and go, "What am I doing wrong?" That's what He says here. Look at your own life. Let the Holy Spirit penetrate and speak. Pray out the psalmist where he says, "Oh, Lord, search me and know me. Reveal to me any unclean thing and then show me the pathway of righteousness." Scrutinize. It's ourselves.

Those of us as believers, we so value the truth. We traffic in the truth, we're always in the word of God. We're helping others. But before we ever help others, listen, before we ever help others, we've got to get our own house in order. Our own house. Our own lives. Let me show you. Jesus illustrated this. Turn over to Matthew chapter 7 with me. We're almost done today. But the teachings, the older I get following Christ, the easier it is to understand that the teachings of Jesus are so simple. Children can understand what Jesus is saying. Young children can understand. Even this particular passage, kids can understand this. They can get the picture.

Notice what He says. Jesus is teaching on the same subject. Verse 1, chapter 7, Matthew. "Judge not, that you not be judged. For with what judgment you judge, you'll be judged. And with the same measure you use, it'll be measured back to you." Not a prohibition of all judgments, we all make judgments, but a prohibition of I believe at least two types of judgment: hypocritical and hypercritical. I've taught on that in another Bible study, you can pick up the study on the app or on the website. But notice the illustration now. In case you don't understand what He's teaching, look how Jesus illustrates it.

"And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye and you don't consider the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me remove the speck out of your eye,' and look, a plank is in your own eye?" Now, what a silly illustration. It's absolutely silly. It's funny. There you are, you've got this big two-by-four sticking out of your eye. It's this big, it's this far out. And you're going around and you're trying to take the speck out of your brother's eye. "Hey, brother, I see this little problem in your..." and let me get close enough and let me take it out.

What happens? You knock him in the head with your two-by-four. And you're like, "Hey, get closer here!" "But bro, I can't get closer because your two-by-four keeps hitting me in the forehead! What's your problem?" "Well, you've got a speck, brother." Dude, dude. I've got a speck, but have you looked in the mirror lately? I think you've got a bigger problem than I do. Think about it. Those of us with planks in our eyes, everybody sees them but us. Everybody sees them. It's pretty obvious.

If you walked in, we're calling 911 if you walk in with a plank in your eye. You had some accident at work and you just had to come to church, we're going to call 911 for you. We see it. You may not see it, but we see it. But a speck, nobody sees the speck. You have never seen another speck in someone's eye unless they asked you to. I know on occasion Maria will ask me, "Hey Ed, will you come over?" and she'll open up her eyelid and she'll "blow in my eye" to get something out. But I would never know she had a problem with her eye unless she asked me. How would I know? I can't go around "Where's the speck? Look, I see the speck," and I'm examining her eyes and all I'm looking for is fault in her instead of seeing her for who she is.

That's what Jesus says. You're going to have a hard time bearing one another's burdens if you don't see your own issues. If you don't examine your own life and stay clean before the Lord. Get your own house in order so that you can be helpful to others. If you're a person with a plank in your eye, your house is not in order, you're not walking in the spirit, but you think you can help everyone else's life? You think you've got all the answers because you took a class and you have a degree and you have been counseling in the church for... if that's you, this is what the Bible says: you're a hypocrite. Verse 5. That's what Jesus says. You hypocrite. The one with the plank looking for the speck. You hypocrite.

And then He says, here's how to get out of it. First, remove the plank from your own eye. Humility. Repentance. Then you'll begin to see clearly to remove the speck out of your brother's eye. And you know what I've found to be very true in my own life? That the more time I spend on taking care of the things in my own life, on my own personal walk that needs attention, the more time I spend on that, I'm not even really looking for specks. I might respond to them, but I'm not really looking for them. I don't see the worst in someone when the Lord has me working on the worst in myself. Just walking in the spirit. You'll rejoice as you help others by helping yourself.

And then he says, back in Galatians in verse 5, the conclusion of this paragraph is: "For each one shall bear his own load." Which sounds like a contradiction to some degree because earlier he said bear one another's burdens and now he's saying bear your own load. But this is where knowing the original language or having access to dictionaries like I do, and you do too on blueletterbible.org, you can get the same dictionaries I use, and you can see the original word that's used in verse 2 is very different than what's used in verse 5.

In verse 2, the idea of a burden is like being kicked in the gut. Being kicked in the gut. Where, I don't know if you've ever lost your breath, maybe got hit or punched or fell off your bike or something and you can't breathe. And you need help. Someone needs help you start breathing again. The burden is like taking a hit in the chest. Whereas in verse 5, when you bear your own load, that's just everyday life. You just live your life. The idea behind this word is a soldier's pack. You know, soldiers, they all have their own pack. Everybody has their own pack.

But if somebody needs help along the way, they have their own pack but they're also helping their brother. That's what he's... so all of us have to carry our own load. We are to be burden bearers, not burden givers. And the way that we're not burden givers is we carry our own load. Let me show you another scripture. Turn over to 2 Thessalonians chapter 3 now because there was a problem and there is a problem in churches in the first century, even to this day, where there are churches with burden givers.

And they're not here to give, they're here to take. And the Bible says, no, no, no, don't do that. Don't be a taker, but be a giver. Be a burden bearer, not a burden giver. So in the church in Thessalonica, another group of believers, they had some serious problems. And in this case here in chapter 3, there were believers that didn't want to work. They didn't want to work. They didn't want to bear their own burdens. Notice what Paul says to them in verse 7 of chapter 3.

2 Thessalonians 3:7. "For you yourselves know how you ought to follow us, for we were not disorderly among you. Nor did we eat anyone's bread free of charge, but worked with labor and toil night and day, that we might not be a burden to anyone." So Paul comes in and gives the illustration: we were not a burden to you. We didn't give you a burden, we helped you by carrying your burdens. So he says, look, you have us as an example. We worked with our hands. And he says, verse 9, not because we don't have authority, he certainly did have authority as an apostle, but he wanted to make himself an example of how you should follow us.

Verse 10. "For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: if anyone will not work, neither shall he eat. For we hear that there are some who walk among you in a disorderly manner, not working at all, but are busybodies." So he's describing a very specific group of people. He's not describing someone that might have been laid off or having issues at work or a downtime where hours were cut. He's talking about those that have decided that they're going to mooch off other believers. They're not going to work with their own hands. They're not going to be faithful with the gifts and talents they have.

They're not going to take any job to make ends meet, but rather they're going to take advantage of well-meaning believers. That was what happening in Thessalonica and it has certainly happened through our church in the last 26 years. We've seen it come and go from time to time where folks will come in and they want to be takers and not givers. They want to take and add a burden to someone rather than take a burden. And it's an issue that is important that you pay attention to. It may not be work for you, but certainly getting things in order in your own life will help you bear others' burdens.

So that we can love one another because there are times where we see it just about every week, where some in our church who have their own burden, their own pack, their own challenging life, issues with the kids or a divorce or just they have their own pack and it's heavy. And something happens with some heavy situation or even not so heavy, but now that it's on their shoulders, it's super heavy. And they need those of us that are stronger or those of us that are in a more stronger position to come along and help them relieve the load.

To help them along the way. Not to do things for them, but to rather help them bear the burden. I know one of the difficulties I've always had as a believer and as a pastor is the folks that are in my office where I'm just sitting there or I'm talking to you after and I just wish I could take it away from you. I just wish I could take it away. I wish I could relieve the consequences of sin. I think of when my kids were young and they would get really, really sick with fever. I would just lay on them and pray over them as they're sweating and they're hurting and I would just ask God, "Would You just give that sickness to me and relieve my kid? Just take it away from him."

The Lord would tell me that's not my sickness to bear. He bore our sicknesses on the cross. I'm to trust my kids with Him. I'm not the one that's going to take it away. And when it comes to the body of Christ, this kind of love matters. It matters to other believers, but it also matters outside the walls of this church, which is where we live most of our lives. Most of our lives are not here, but there.

And we want these healthy homes, effective and safe homes where the Lord will use us so that we take care of our own business so we can take care of others. We're not walking around with a plank in our eye looking for specks, but we're just taking care of business and being led by the Holy Spirit. And perhaps, you don't have to do it this way, but where you just look at yourself in the mirror and say, "Lord, what do You want for my life? Am I in the right place? Am I doing the right thing? Am I responding the right way? Help me, Lord. Show me, lead me, guide me." So that at the end of the day, if we do well or we don't do well, we can say, "But I asked the Lord and I thought I was following Him and now He's correcting me." And I want to be a help in the church, I don't want to be a hurt.

Guest (Male): What you heard today on Abounding Grace is part of Pastor Ed Taylor's series taken from the book of Galatians. You can hear it again online at aboundinggraceradio.com or wherever you get your podcasts. We also have an app that makes listening to Pastor Ed easy to do on your mobile devices. Search for Calvary Church. And we'd really like to hear from you this summer. It's helpful to know how these studies are impacting your life and that would be a real encouragement to Pastor Ed and the team.

And if you're in need of prayer, please leave your prayer requests as well. There's a place to contact us at aboundinggraceradio.com. Abounding Grace is supported by listeners just like you. And we're grateful for those that come alongside us with either a one-time gift or ongoing support. We'd like to say thanks today for a gift of $25 or more by sending you the "Jesus Person Promise Book" by David Wilkerson.

When you're dealing with a personal or a spiritual problem, where do you turn? If you're wise, you'll open the word. And the "Jesus Person Promise Book" highlights over 800 promises in the word arranged topically. That makes it super easy to find the specific promise that relates to the problem you're experiencing. It's available to our Abounding Grace listeners when you support the ministry with a gift of $25 or more. So call us at 877-30-GRACE or visit our e-store at calvaryco.store. And then come back next time when we'll continue our study of God's word with Pastor Ed. That's right here on Abounding Grace.

Abounding Grace is brought to you by Calvary Church Colorado here in Aurora.